Seàn Arthurs (’05), Director of Global Education and Training at EarthRights International, authored a blogpost for EarthRights commemorating the first gathering of the Congo River School, where participants impacted by exploitative mining gained experience in documenting abuses and developing action plans (“Activism and Education: The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Hopeful Horizon,” Dec. 18). “The most significant gains, consistent with the objectives of the school, were around participant knowledge about how to document environmental and human rights abuses, particularly through the techniques of soil collection and photo documentation. . . . The partnership between AfreWatch and EarthRights that led to the Ecole du Fleuve Congo grew out of … a shared commitment to train and empower earth rights defenders who are standing up for their communities in the face of merciless corporate exploitation, environmental, and human rights abuses.”
